For a long time, craftsmen have been using various techniques to give objects a rustic look, objects that, otherwise, would all look alike. For example, various stone aging techniques can be used when a person wishes to pave his driveway with concrete blocks while still preserving the rustic look of his house and landscape. In that case, a good solution is to use concrete blocks having a rough, old-looking surface. The current techniques for providing such an antique aspect to an object are most of the time old-fashioned, manual techniques. Even though the result might be adequate, the process of manually crafting the surface of an object to give it a rustic look is long, arduous, inefficient and uneconomical.
In order to facilitate stone aging processes, various apparatuses have been developed for roughing or texturing the surface of an object and have been disclosed in recent years.
Among those there are the tumbler type apparatuses wherein concrete blocks are exposed to tumbling operations. Such techniques are however time consuming and may require additional steps and/or operations in the handling of the blocks prior and after such exposure. Indeed the textured blocks exit the tumbler in a disorderly fashion and have to be reorganized in piles These handling steps are obviously time-consuming. An example of such apparatuses is disclosed in WO2004/067242 (GRUBB). Tumbling apparatus present the disadvantage of not being able to treat or age large thin stones, or fragile stones, and such stone would be damaged rather than aged.
Other apparatuses using a conveyor to transport the concrete blocks to a surface treatment section have also been developed in the prior art. Example of those are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,206 (YOUNG), U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,906 (CASTONGUAY et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,501 (BOTT); US 2002/0145224 (CICCARELLO); US 2002/015863 (CICCARELLO et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,786 (CICCARELLO), U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,727 (CICARRELLO et al.), US 2003/0173697 (CICCARELLO et al.). One drawback however with most of these apparatuses is that, although they do roughen the surface of concrete blocks, they do not provide a satisfactory real, natural, antique look.
Also known in the art are U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,740 (SCHERER et al.), US 2002/0092257 (SCHERER et al.), US 2003/0180099 (SCHERER et al.), which disclose various devices and methods for roughing the surface of masonry blocks or artificial stone blocks.
Also known in related art are the following documents: U.S. Pat. No. 3,536,150 (STEBLEY), U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,200 (WINTER), U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,093 (PEREZ), U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,556 (BARR et al.), No. US 2002/0056771 (ZEHR), and No. US 2003/0138516 (HESS et al.).
Since the market for concrete blocks with a rough, old-looking surface is developing and demand for such products is growing, there is indeed a need for an apparatus or method that can rapidly bestow an antique look on an object in an efficient and economical manner.